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| Birth Name(s) : Nelly Furtado |
Date of Birth: December 2, 1978 |
| Status:
N/A
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Musician |
Official Site
Go to the Nelly Furtado Official Homepage |
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Full Nelly Furtado Biography
Singer/songwriter Nelly Furtado's eclectic sound can be traced back to her assorted ethnic background and childhood. Though she was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, her Portuguese roots helped introduce her to Portugal's and Brazil's top performers, giving a well rounded international feel to her music often lacking in her pop counterparts. Furtado's working-class parents, whom are of Portuguese decent, instilled a hard-core work ethic during her upbringing. She spent eight summers working as a chambermaid with her housekeeping mother, quickly realizing what it meant to honestly make a living.
She turned to music for enjoyment, learning to play the guitar and the ukulele, and listened to mainstream R&B. Later she delved into her older brother's collection of Radiohead, Pulp, Oasis, Portishead, the Verve, and U2. Furtado fully embraced different musical genres, specifically Brazillian music. Hip-Hop also influenced Furtado's musical appreciation.
After high school, she headed to Toronto where she worked at an alarm company by day and experienced the music scene by night. She joined a Hip-Hop duo, Nelstar, an opportunity that led Furtado back to her Hip-Hop influences of De La Soul and Digable Planets. This also allowed her to get comfortable with writing her own melodies and free-style rhymes. Brian West and Gerald Eaton, who were of the Canadian funk-pop group, the Philosopher Kings, were instantly impressed with her strong sense of performing and asked to produce her demo. During those sessions, Furtado created some of the moving work that landed on her debut for DreamWorks, "Whoa, Nelly!" |
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Additional Nelly Furtado Biography
Nelly Kim Furtado (born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and instrumentalist, who also holds Portuguese citizenship.
Furtado came to fame in 2000 with the release of her debut album Whoa, Nelly!, which featured her breakthrough Grammy Award-winning single "I'm like a Bird". After becoming a mother and releasing the less commercially successful Folklore (2003), she returned to prominence in 2006 with the release of Loose and its hit singles "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Say It Right", "All Good Things (Come to an End)", and "Do It."
Furtado is known for experimenting with different instruments, sounds, genres, languages, and vocal styles. This diversity has been influenced by her wide-ranging musical taste and her interest in different cultures.
Nelly Furtado was born in Victoria, British Columbia to Portuguese immigrants from the Azores, Maria Manuela and António José Furtado. She was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim. Raised in a Roman Catholic home, Furtado first sang at the age of four when she performed a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day. Although remaining unclear about her religious beliefs, she still affirms a belief in God, the Ten Commandments, and in avoiding the Seven Sins. She began playing instruments at the age of nine, learning the trombone, ukulele and, in later years, the guitar and keyboard. At the age of twelve, she began writing songs, and as a teenager, she performed in a Portuguese marching band. Furtado has acknowledged her family as the source of her strong work ethic; she spent eight summers working as a chambermaid with her mother, who was a housekeeper in Victoria. She has stated that coming from a working class background has shaped her identity in a positive way.
The first musicians Furtado interacted with were underground rappers and DJs. During a visit to Toronto the summer after eleventh grade, Furtado met Tallis Newkirk, member of the hip hop group Plains of Fascination. She contributed vocals to their 1996 album, Join the Ranks, on the track "Waitin' 4 the Streets". After graduating from Mount Douglas Secondary School in 1996, she moved to Toronto. The following year, she formed Nelstar, a trip hop duo with Newkirk. Ultimately, Furtado felt the trip-hop style of the duo was "too segregated" and believed it did not represent her personality or allow her to showcase her vocal ability. She left the group and planned to move back home.
The album was an international success, supported by three international singles: "I'm like a Bird", "Turn off the Light", and "...On the Radio (Remember the Days)". It received four Grammy nominations in 2002, and her debut single won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Furtado's work was also critically acclaimed for her innovative mixture of various genres and sounds. Slant magazine called the album "a delightful and refreshing antidote to the army of 'pop princesses' and rap-metal bands that had taken over popular music at the turn of the millennium."
On September 20, 2003 in Toronto, Furtado gave birth to a daughter, Nevis, whose father is DJ Jasper Gahunia. Furtado and Gahunia, who had been good friends for several years, remained together for four years until their breakup in 2005. Furtado told Blender magazine that they continue to be good friends and jointly share responsibility of raising Nevis. Nevis is ethnically a quarter Filipino, a quarter Asian Indian, and half Portuguese.
In June 2006, in an interview with Genre magazine, when asked if she had "ever felt an attraction to women", Furtado replied "Absolutely. Women are beautiful and sexy." Some considered this an announcement of bisexuality, but in August 2006, she confirmed that she was "straight, but very open-minded". In November 2006, Furtado revealed that she once turned down US$500,000 to pose nude in Playboy.
In July 2007, it was reported that Furtado is engaged to Cuban sound engineer, Demacio "Demo" Castellon, who worked with her on Loose.
During her teenage years, Furtado embraced many musical genres, listening heavily to mainstream R&B, hip hop, alternative hip hop, drum and bass, trip hop, world music (including Portuguese fado, Brazilian bossa nova, and Indian music), and a variety of others. Her influences have included Jeff Buckley, Janet Jackson, Oasis, Caetano Veloso, Esthero, Amalia Rodrigues, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Cornershop, TLC, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Digable Planets, De La Soul, Radiohead, Madonna, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Verve, U2, Enya, and Beck.
Furtado's music has also been influenced by her current residence, Toronto, which she calls "the most multicultural city in the entire world" and a place where she "can be any culture". Regarding Toronto's cultural diversity, she has said that she did not have to wait for the Internet revolution to learn about world music; she began listening to it at the age of five and continues to discover new genres.“I always know there's a new genre left to discover. For me, it's like a metaphor for life. I feel like if you can get down with any style of music, you can get down with any style of person. So it's fun for me—I get to expose my fans to different vibes and they, in turn, open their minds too. I'm always undergoing mind-opening.” |
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Nelly Furtado Quote(s)
| And like a fickle flower when it first sees the light. |
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